June 13, 2004, Volunteer Park Criterium
Seattle, WA   10.6 miles

I was in the Masters C race (50+ age group) which was 25 minutes plus 1 lap (0.66 miles per lap) which resulted in a total of 16 laps. Although we had some good rain overnight and I drove through several squalls on the way to the race from the North, the 90% chance of precipitation didn't materialize for our racing. We had dry streets and a cool 64 degrees, with a slight crosswind across the finish line.

After last weekend's stage race, I had to do a business trip to California on Monday and Tuesday, so I got minimal riding in to loosen up. Thursday I did a 40 mile time trial in Chelan to better my time from last summer (which I accomplished, but the strong wind limited me to only cutting off 5 minutes). Fortunately, by Saturday I was feeling nimble again.

In today's criterium, we had 12 starters (a small field) and I was not familiar with any of them, although one of them recognized me from last weekend. The course immediately does a quick 270 degree loop around a fountain, then down a slope with some mild curves, up a slightly steeper hill to a 90 degree right corner and then about 220 meters on a half degree upslope to the finish with a slight bend to the left. I had heard rumors that accidents often happen on the loop around the fountain, so I did my usual first off the line, gained about 4 lengths and just did a moderate pace to warm up and keep clear of any accidents (which we never had). I stayed in the top 2 or 3 for the first 9 laps to avoid any pileups.

On the 6th lap, we had our first prime. I was in the lead up the hill and no one wanted to take it over. So I gave a mild sprint and Martin Wilcock came around me with about 80 meters to go and I pretended that I was giving it my all. Several laps later, Martin took the second prime from the front as I watched from behind, and then Woody Cox motored off the front and I chased him down. Martin caught us and we had three away, but nobody wanted to give it 100% and we were soon absorbed by the pack. However 2 guys couldn't take the surge and dropped out of the race.

With 3 laps to go, I decided to glue myself to Martin's wheel in preparation for the sprint. Surprisingly, on the finish stretch with 2 laps to go, he attacked and I stayed on his wheel. I took a turn on the down stretch, but then he would not come to the front on the climb. Woody joined us with just over a lap to go and the rest of the pack was out of sight. Coming to the final time up the hill, Woody was leading, followed by Martin, and then me watching the two of them. As the climb steepened, they started to slow down a bit too much. I wasn't sure if from a slower speed that I'd have enough time to pass them after the corner, so I jumped on the last portion of the climb and beat them to the final turn. I then shifted 2 cogs in the rear to get a higher gear (53x15) and gave it all I had out of the saddle (my in-saddle sprinting is not working yet) and had about 3 lengths on Woody at the line and another couple on Martin. Everyone was surprised at my win as apparently Woody is some kind of track sprinter, riding senior class 1,2 races at the local track quite well.

On August 1, the WA State Criterium Championships for Masters will be on the same course. So I am now familiar with it and will probably make that my next top priority race.

Place Name
1 Lionel Space
2 Woody Cox
3 Martin Willcock
4 John Root
5 David Hokit
6 Roger Giebelhaus
7 Dan Byrne
8 Bob Crawford
9 Peter Hoagland
10 Stan Gregg

Racing page     Bike page